What in Randland....?

[Bob T Dwarf]

No, RAW doesn't have a clue as to who killed Asmo - much as he'd like to convince people he does.

 

The GOOD part in all of that is that we've been assured that Asmo's death is one question that WILL be answered in aMoL.

[bRANDan]

To trakand_01, Canada didn't get involved in the Iraq war, the Afghan war yes. I'm Canadian and I would be out protesting right now if we had joined, and I'm not the protesting type, they're a bunch of hippies  ;D.

 

One thing I'd like to know is are souls that have been balefired out of the pattern or "Mashadared" out out of reach of the Creator? We know the DO cannot bring these souls back. If the Creator can't, is it for the same reasons? Are these souls lost to the pattern forever? Or were they merely expedited to whereever souls await to be reborn? (And no I don't mean heroes that are tied to the wheel and wait in TAR)

 

We'll probably never get those questions answered, but those are the questions that interest me the most. That is also one reason why I like Tolkien's world, in The Silmarillion he gave all out descriptions of his universe. I thought The Silmarillion was dry and boring as a story, but it did give some good facts. It's a shame that was never written as Tolkien desired, if I'm not mistaken that was supposed to be another trilogy, and I think it would have been way better than LotR.

[BrainFireBob]

The Trolloc Wars "infested" Shara, they didn't "infect" them.

 

Different terms in that instance.

 

Brooke-

 

Jordan was a methodical writer. Hence, these little questions he often considered ahead of time and laid out. He was originally a physicist, and in many ways his writing reflects solving an equation- if you define the variables properly, the equation all but solves itself. So where he's revealed them, we do have answers, or can tease them out, because he wrote the answers for himself to allow for more authenticity.

 

bRANDm-

 

Balefired souls return to the pool of souls, because balefire simply shifts their death back in time. Since the only mechanism we know for "recalling" a person- the DO- has a limited window to claim a person and re-incarnate them, the "person" may be permanently destroyed by balefire, but the soul is not. It's whitewashed or bleached or distressed or whatever the Pattern does to the dead, and returned to the pool of souls.

 

Mashadar souls, it seems, do some sort of "joining the Mashadar collective." Mashadar is made up, in part, of the souls of the fallen Aridholans, at a guess, and those it consumes join them. Think "Mistwraith" from the Wars of Light and Shadow.

 

Now that Shadar Logoth is gone, it's possible those souls have returned to the pool as well.

[Bob T Dwarf]

One possible side-effect of the destruction of Shadar Logoth ( if the souls that Mashadar had consumed are indeed returned to the general 'soul pool' ) could be that the 'Sammael' who was seen ordering Trollocs into the Ways prior to the attack on Rand at the Manor is the real one and not any impostor.

 

If so, it makes me wonder if anybody we've seen 'die' is really dead after all.

[Luckers]

Either way its an imposter--Sammael died and his body was consumed. Even if his soul was freed, his reapearence would involve a new body--which would mean that he was disguising himself to appear as Sammael in any case. In addition to the fact that every other recycling took much longer, none of the other Forsaken went to such efforts to retain who they were, even Cyndane who hated her decrease in height. Sammael who disdained his own appearence seems an unlikely candidate for change, and Moridin knew of all the recycled individuals... why would he then be unaware of Sammael?

[Bob T Dwarf]

Probably.

 

But, the DO's MO throughout, has been to never let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.  It wouldn't be at all strange if there were any number of things afoot with which the DO hadn't felt it needful nor wise to acquaint Moridin.

 

Moridin may think of himself as Ne'blis.  But, in the grand scheme of things, that just means he's a pawn with airs from where the DO sits.

[BrainFireBob]

RJ's confirmed Sammael is dead-dead.

 

So no, the DO has no ace here.

[bRANDan]

The Trolloc Wars "infested" Shara, they didn't "infect" them.

 

Different terms in that instance.

 

Thanks, I new I was close though  ;).

[Bob T Dwarf]

What he said was, "Mashadar got him.  He's toast."

 

The point being speculated upon is whether, upon the destruction of Shadar Logoth, and the Mashadar that infested it, the souls that Mashadar had encompassed were then returned to the soul pool.

 

Now, it's for dang sure the DO was paying attention to everything that was happening in that vicinity at that time.  Thus IF (big IF) Sam's soul was freed from Mashadar's hold on it at that time, the DO would have had the opportunity to intercept and transmigrate it.

 

[Kadere]

Actually RJ went and said this as well as the famous "toast" line:

 

Q: Is Sammael dead dead, or 'he will never return dead'?

A: Sammael? [pronounce something like Sammy-el] Sammael is dead. He's dead. He could be reborn. In another life. Without knowing anything of Sammael. He's not going to be reincarnated, he's not going to show up again.

 

 

Which I think is pretty clear that he's not coming back.